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Larry Wheeler of Memphis, TN writes: "WHBQ, Channel 13 Memphis, reported that Apple Store, Saddle Creek was broken into, early this morning. They showed surveillance video of a vehicle smashing through the glass doors, and the "bandits" made off with several laptops and digital cameras. The store was closed for repairs today. They mentioned no arrests."

Gordon Anderson of CNN/Money writes "Apple CEO Steve Jobs couldn't have been happy when recent headlines trumpeted his revised compensation package as the latest innovation in corporate excess.... It's the latest trend in CEO compensation: swapping out-of-the-money options for restricted stock. In effect, what Jobs and scores of other corporate officers have done is to accept the bird-in-hand virtues of direct stock ownership over the more ephemeral prospects of option grants."

Steve Jobs declined to comment on its forthcoming online music service and its reported talks to buy Vivendi's Universal Music label at the computer maker's annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, according Reuters: "There have been a lot of rumors in the last few weeks. Many of them are not true and some of them are true."

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Evening tech news: Microsoft hopes to rival UNIX server dominance with the release of its Windows Server 2003; Iraq is shaping up to be a "rare opportunity" for U.S. technology companies to build a digital infrastructure; "Linux is rapidly graduating from a small cult to a mainstream religious movement."

Screen Movie Recorder 1.0 offers the ability to record movies of what happens on your screen. it can be set to automatically start at launch, can record the full screen or selected portions, and offers a user-customizable frame-per-second setting. The OS X utility is $10 for personal use and $20 for commercial use. [838KB]
AppendNote 1.0 is a Mac OS X system service which takes selected text (in any service-supporting application) and saves it to a text file on your hard drive. The text will be saved to a plain-text file named 'Notes.txt' in your home directory. Both the file name and the note storage file format can be customized. The OS X-only utility is free. [53KB]
Boswell 3.1 is a $100 application that flexibly archives, organizes, manipulates, and retrieves text: " original writings, e-mail, instant messages, web clippings, research, and class notes among others. When they are "Boswellized" they become items that can be automatically cross referenced among thousands of categories, grouped, sorted, and searched in very powerful ways." [2.9MB]
ProjectHQ 1.2 is designed to manage project resources. Version 1.2 adds a Projects menu, has better export functions, an improves searching.. The $12 shareware also offers access to Web tools (dictionary, thesaurus, grammar help, etc.) and integrated Sherlock functionality. [1.8MB]
3D Nature has announced its new landscape rendering technology, World Construction Set 6, according to Architosh. It offers tools for transparent water, real volumetric clouds and atmospheres; bump mapping for surface details; a new network render controller; and new support for JPEG, PNG, TIFF, AVI, and QuickTime files as well as OBJ support, LightWorks support and other 3D formats. It is $1000.
izi-Applicant 1.0 manages the job application review process. Users can input lists of requirements, create simple checklists for each job and score applicants. It offers mail merge templates, personalized email generation, application material tracking/storage, and other functions. The FileMaker-based application is $245.

USA Today reports on the pending announcement of Apple's online music service, noting that existing pay music services have fewer than 300,000 customers and Real Networks' recent acquisition of Listen.com: "Though Apple declined to comment before the announcement, those who have used the new service say it's as easy as buying a book on Amazon.com. Recommendations based on listeners' preferences are plentiful; the system seamlessly interplays with Apple's free iTunes jukebox software and with the iPod."

Microsoft today unveiled four new special edition mouse and keyboard products. The Wireless Optical Desktop Special Edition ($85) "delivers six feet worth of wireless freedom with a gleaming white and chrome-accented mouse, keyboard and shared receiver." The Wireless Optical Mouse Special Edition ($45) features a shining white finish, features an ambidextrous design and a wider scroll wheel. Microsoft's MultiMedia Keyboard Special Edition ($45) has a matte black finish, offers one-touch multimedia controls and time-saving Hot Keys. Finally, the Optical Mouse Special Edition ($35) with a matte black finish offers ambidextrous comfort and a wider scroll wheel. All are available now except the Optical Mouse SE, which is due in May.

Alias|Wavefront today annnounced the availability of Maya 5, the latest version of its 3D software package which was introduced at NAB 2003 earlier this month. The upgrade is available now for annual maitenance customers, while Maya 5 for new and upgrading customers will begin shipping on May 1, 2003. Maya 5 includes enhancements in areas such as character animation, dynamics and polygonal modeling as well as improved data exchange, including support for Macromedia Flash (SWF), DWG, DXF, Adobe Illustrator (AI), Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), IGES, OpenFlight, StudioTools and OBJ (MTL). Other new features are listed on the Website. Maya Complete is $2,000 and includes modeling, rendering, animation, dynamics, Maya Artisan, Maya Paint Effects, mental ray for Maya and Maya Embedded Language (MEL).

Apple says that "an audio application may unexpectedly quit when you disconnect or turn off a USB- or FireWire-based audio device. "Audio applications" include applications that access the USB or FireWire audio device, including iTunes, Final Cut Pro, and the Sound pane of System Preferences." The solution offered is to "quit all applications that can access the audio device before disconnecting it or turning it off."

Studio Boss 3.6.4 uses a FileMaker Pro data engine to manage projects, clients, activities, expenses, and invoices. Studio Boss users can also track their time using a Palm-compatible PDA and create customized reports. The latest version of Studio Boss includes the ability to email an invoice, several new forms, an updated manual, and a new auto-backup feature to protect data. It is available for $40 through April. [Classic, OSX]
JediKnight 2.1 is an update to the full-featured, Cocoa-based and Aqua-compliant IRC client. It supports multiple server connections, file transfer, window transparency, rules-based message filtering, text-to-speech, and more. The application is $20 "donationware". [4.3MB]
SlipStream today announced Version 3 of its Internet acceleration software, SlipStream Data. The new version provides compression for email, as well as tighter integration with both Microsoft Explorer and Netscape web browsers and a new Mac OS X client for for web browsing as well as new reporting features for ISPs and overall speed improvements. This version is available for testing immediately and will be generally available in early May of 2003.
Realmac Software today announced AudioX 3, a $20 sound recording application that can record sound from any input source under Mac OS X, including a built-in microphone, USB microphone, FireWire video camera or via the audio-in port. It offers AIFF export, speed control of song playback, the ability to add/export notes, new toolbar icons, iTunes-like file management, and other enhancements. [2.0MB]
Ellipsis has released Safari Bookmark Exporter 1.0, a freeware utility designed to export Safari bookmarks. It supports export to OmniWeb, Camino/Chimera, Mozilla, Netscape, and Internet Explorer browsers. [212KB]
DropDMG 2.1 is a utility to create ".dmg", ".img", and ".smi" disk
images under Mac OS X. It can encrypt images and encode them with GZip,
BZip2, or MacBinary and can also create images with rich-text license
agreements. It adds support for Internet-enabled disk images, simplified preferences, an improved UI, and other changes. It is a free update to the $10 application. [830KB]

Apple today announced it would offer a satellite broadcast of the April 28th special event, which promised announcements that would be "music to your ears." Apple said the presentation will be available via satellite at the following coordinates on Monday, April 28th at 1:00 p.m. EDT:

Now AAPL Stock: 113.95 ( + 1.83 )

Cirrus creates Lightning-headphone dev kit

Apple supplier Cirrus Logic has introduced a MFi-compliant new development kit for companies interested in using Cirrus' chips to create Lightning-based headphones, which -- regardless of whether rumors about Apple dropping the analog headphone jack in its iPhone this fall -- can offer advantages to music-loving iOS device users. The kit mentions some of the advantages of an all-digital headset or headphone connector, including higher-bitrate support, a more customizable experience, and support for power and data transfer into headphone hardware. Several companies already make Lightning headphones, and Apple has supported the concept since June 2014. http://bit.ly/29giiZj

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Developer163d

Apple Store app offers Procreate Pocket

The Apple Store app for iPhone, which periodically rewards users with free app gifts, is now offering the iPhone "Pocket" version of drawing app Procreate for those who have the free Apple Store app until July 28. Users who have redeemed the offer by navigating to the "Stores" tab of the app and swiping past the "iPhone Upgrade Program" banner to the "Procreate" banner have noted that only the limited Pocket (iPhone) version of the app is available free, even if the Apple Store app is installed and the offer redeemed on an iPad. The Pocket version currently sells for $3 on the iOS App Store. [32.4MB]

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163d

Porsche adds CarPlay to 2017 Panamera

Porsche has added a fifth model of vehicle to its CarPlay-supported lineup, announcing that the 2017 Panamera -- which will arrive in the US in January -- will include Apple's infotainment technology, and be seen on a giant 12.3-inch touchscreen as part of an all-new Porsche Communication Management system. The luxury sedan starts at $99,900 for the 4S model, and scales up to the Panamera Turbo, which sells for $146,900. Other vehicles that currently support CarPlay include the 2016 911 and the 2017 models of Macan, 718 Boxster, and 718 Cayman. The company did not mention support for Google's corresponding Android Auto in its announcement. http://bit.ly/295ZQ94

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Industry163d

Apple employees testing wheelchair features

New features included in the forthcoming watchOS 3 are being tested by Apple retail store employees, including a new activity-tracking feature that has been designed with wheelchair users in mind. The move is slightly unusual in that, while retail employees have previously been used to test pre-release versions of OS X and iOS, this marks the first time they've been included in the otherwise developer-only watchOS betas. The company is said to have gone to great lengths to modify the activity tracker for wheelchair users, including changing the "time to stand" notification to "time to roll" and including two wheelchair-centric workout apps. http://bit.ly/2955JDa

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Troubleshooting163d

SanDisk reveals two 256GB microSDXC cards

SanDisk has introduced two 256GB microSDXC cards. Arriving in August for $150, the Ultra microSDXC UHS-I Premium Edition card offers transfer speeds of up to 95MB/s for reading data. The Extreme microSDXC UHS-I card can read at a fast 100MB/s and write at up to 90MB/s, and will be shipping sometime in the fourth quarter for $200. http://bit.ly/294Q1If

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Upgrades/storage163d

Apple's third-quarter results due July 26

Apple has advised it will be issuing its third-quarter results on July 26, with a conference call to answer investor and analyst queries about the earnings set to take place later that day. The stream of the call will go live at 2pm PT (5pm ET) via Apple's investor site, with the results themselves expected to be released roughly 30 minutes before the call commences. Apple's guidance for the quarter put revenue at between $41 billion and $43 billion. http://apple.co/1oi1Pbm

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Investor164d

Twitter stickers slowly roll out to users

Twitter has introduced "stickers," allowing users to add extra graphical elements to their photos before uploading them to the micro-blogging service. A library of hundreds of accessories, props, and emoji will be available to use as stickers, which can be resized, rotated, and placed anywhere on the photograph. Images with stickers will also become searchable with viewers able to select a sticker to see how others use the same graphic in their own posts. Twitter advises stickers will be rolling out to users over the next few weeks, and will work on both the mobile apps and through the browser. http://bit.ly/29bbwUE